Professor Carola G Vinuesa

Contacts

Contact email:carola.vinuesa@anu.edu.au
Contact phone:+61 2 612 54500
Location:Room 3.229
Centre:The Centre for Personalised Immunology
Link:ANU Researchers profile
LMS(MBBS) (Madrid), PhD (Birmingham UK), Elizabeth Blackburn NHMRC Research Fellow
Professor and Group Leader

Carola Vinuesa was born in Spain and obtained a medical degree at the University Autonoma of Madrid. She undertook specialist clinical training in the UK and in 2000 was awarded a PhD by the University of Birmingham. A year later she was the recipient of a Wellcome Trust International Travelling prize Fellowship to do postdoctoral work at The John Curtin School for Medical Research in The Australian National University. Since 2006 she has been a group leader. She has been the recipient of several prestigious awards including the Science Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the year (2008), the Gottschalk Medal of the Australian Academy of Sciences (2009). In 2015, she was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. She is currently Professor of Immunology at the Australian National University and Director of the Centre for Personalised Immunology (CPI), an NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence.

Research interests

Carola Vinuesa’s research aims to unravel the complex interaction of cells and molecules that regulate the production of potent, long-lasting antibody responses and to identify genetic abnormalities that interfere with this process and contribute to the development of autoimmunity.

Her group has identified genes, cell types and checkpoints important to prevent autoantibody-mediated diseases. Her team is also working towards connecting genetic variation in humans to autoimmune disease with the goal of identifying more targeted treatments. She directs the Centre for Personalised immunology (CPI), an NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence that is sequencing whole genomes from patients with immune-mediated diseases to uncover mutations that cause disease. She also co-directs the China Australia Centre for Personalised Immunology (CACPI) based in Shanghai Renji Hospital (Jiaotong University). The ultimate aim of her research is to understand autoimmune disease pathogenesis, refine diagnosis and develop improved approaches to therapy.

Groups

Selected 20 publications (from over 100):

  • Papa I, Saliba D, Ponzoni M, Bustamante S, Canete PF, Gonzalez-Figueroa P, McNamara HA, Valvo S, Grimbaldeston M, Sweet RA, Vohra H, Cockburn IA, Meyer-Hermann M, Dustin ML, Doglioni C*, Vinuesa CG*. TFH-derived dopamine accelerates productive synapses in germinal centres. Nature (article) 2017; 547(7663):318-323.
  • Vinuesa CG, Linterman MA, Yu D, MacLennan IC. Follicular Helper T Cells. Annu Rev Immunol. 2016 May 20;34:335-68.
  • Pratama A, Srivastava M, Williams NJ, Papa I, Lee SK, Dinh XT, Hutloff A, Jordan MA, Zhao JL, Casellas R, Athanasopoulos V and Vinuesa CG. MicroRNA-146a regulates ICOS-ICOSL signalling to limit accumulation of T follicular helper cells and germinal centres. Nature Commun. 2015; 6:6436.
  • Srivastava M, Duan G, Kershaw NJ, Athanasopoulos V, Yeo JH, Ose T, Hu D, Brown SH, Jergic S, Patel HR, Pratama A, Richards S, Verma A, Jones EY, Heissmeyer V, Preiss T, Dixon NE, Chong MM*, Babon JJ* and Vinuesa CG*. Roquin binds microRNA-146a and Argonaute2 to regulate microRNA homeostasis. Nature Commun. 2015; 6:6253.
  • Ellyard JI, Jerjen R, Martin JL, Lee AY, Field MA, Jiang SH, Cappello J, Naumann SK, Andrews TD, Scott HS, Casarotto MG, Goodnow CC, Chaitow J, Pascual V, Hertzog P, Alexander SI, Cook MC* and Vinuesa CG*. Identification of a pathogenic variant in TREX1 in early-onset cerebral systemic lupus erythematosus by Whole-exome sequencing. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2014 Dec;66(12):3382-6.
  • Pratama A*, Ramiscal RR*, Silva DG*, Das SK, Athanasopoulos V, Fitch J, Botelho NK, Chang PP, Hu X, Hogan JJ, Maña P, Bernal D, Korner HC, Yu D, Goodnow CC, Cook MC and Vinuesa CG. Roquin-2 shares functions with its paralog Roquin-1 in the repression of mRNAs controlling Tfh cell accumulation and systemic inflammation. Immunity. 2013. 38(4):669-80.
  • Lee SK, Silva DG, Martin JL, Pratama A, Hu X, Chang P-P, Walters G and Vinuesa CG. Interferon-g Excess Leads to Pathogenic Accumulation of Follicular Helper T Cells and Germinal Centers. Immunity. 2012; 37:880-92.
  • Chang PP, Barral P, Fitch J, Pratama A, Ma CS, Kallies A, Hogan JJ, Cerundolo V, Tangye SG, Bittman R, Nutt SL, Brink R, Godfrey DI, Batista FD and Vinuesa CG. Identification of Bcl-6-dependent follicular helper NKT cells that provide cognate help for B cell responses. Nature Immunol. 2012;13(1):35-43.
  • Linterman MA, Pierson W, Lee SK, Kallies A, Kawamoto S, Rayner TF, Srivastava M, Divekar DP, Beaton L, Hogan JJ, Fagarasan S, Liston A, Smith KG* and Vinuesa CG*. Foxp3+ follicular regulatory T cells control the germinal center response. Nature Medicine. 2011 Jul 24;17(8):975-82.
  • Lee SK*, Rigby RJ*, Zotos D, Tsai LM, Kawamoto S, Marshall JL, Ramiscal RR, Chan TD, Gatto D, Brink R, Yu D, Fagarasan S, Tarlinton DM, Cunningham AF and Vinuesa CG. B cell priming for extrafollicular antibody responses requires Bcl-6 expression by T cells. J Exp Med 2011; 208: 1377-88.
  • Linterman, M.A.*, Beaton, L.*, Yu, D., Ramiscal R.R., Srivastava, M., Hogan, J.J., Verma, NK., Smyth, MJ., Rigby, R.J. and Vinuesa, C.G. IL-21 acts directly on B cells to regulate Bcl-6 expression and germinal center responses. J. Exp. Med. 2010. 207(2), 353-363.
  • Simpson, N., Gatenby, P.A., Wilson, A., Malik, S., Fulcher, D.A., Tangye, S.G., Manku, H., Vyse, T.J., Roncador, G., Huttley, G.A., Goodnow, C.C., Vinuesa, C.G., and Cook, M.C., 2010, Expansion of Circulating T Cells Resembling Follicular Helper T Cells Is a Fixed Phenotype That Identifies a Subset of Severe Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. Arthr Rheumatol 62(1), 234-244.
  • Vinuesa CG, Sanz I, Cook MC. Dysregulation of germinal centres in autoimmune disease. Nature Rev Immunol. 2009;9:845-857.
  • Yu, D, S. Rao, LM. Tsai, SK. Lee, Y. He, EL. Sutcliffe, M. Srivastava, M. Linterman, L Zheng, N. Simpson, JI. Ellyard, IA. Parish, C. Ma, Q-J. Li, C.R. Parish, C.R. Mackay* and CG. Vinuesa* The transcriptional repressor Bcl-6 directs T follicular helper lineage commitment. Immunity. 2009. 31:457-468.
  • Linterman, M., Rigby, R., Wong, R.K., Yu, D., Brink R., Cannons, J.L, Schwartzberg, P.L., Cook, M.C., Walters, G.D., and Vinuesa, C.G. Follicular helper T cells are required for systemic autoimmunity. J. Exp. Med. 2009, 206(3):561-76.
  • Linterman, M., Rigby, R., Wong, R., Whithers, D., Anderson, G., Brink, R. and Hutloff, A., Goodnow, C.C. and Vinuesa, C.G. Roquin differentiates the specialized functions of duplicated T cell co-stimulatory receptor genes Cd28 and Icos. Immunity. 2009. 30(2):228-241.
  • Yu, D., A. H-M. Tan, X. Hu, V. Athanasopoulos, Simpson, K. M., D. Silva, A. Hutloff, Giles, P.J. Leedman, K.P. Lam, N., C.C. Goodnow* and C.G. Vinuesa*. Roquin represses autoimmunity by limiting inducible T cell costimulator messenger RNA. Nature 2007. 450, 299-303.
  • Vinuesa, C.G, Cook, M.C., Angelucci, C., Athanasopoulos, V., Rui, L., Hill, K.M., Yu, D., Domaschenz, H., Whittle, B., Lambe, T., Roberts, I.S., Copley, I.R., Bell, J.I., Cornall, R.J., and Goodnow, C.C. A novel RING-type ubiquitin ligase family member essential to repress follicular helper T cells and autoimmunity. 2005. Nature 435, 452-458, 2005.
  • Vinuesa CG, Tangye S G, Moser B and Mackay C R: (2005) Follicular B helper T cells in antibody responses and autoimmunity. Nature Rev. Immunol. 2005 Nov; 5(11):853-865.
  • Vinuesa, C.G., Cook, M., Ball, J., Drew, M., Sunners, Y., Klaus, G.G.B., Cascalho, M., Wabl, M. MacLennan, I.C.M. Germinal centres without T cells.  2000. J. Exp. Med. 191:485-493. IF: 12.5;